Alternative internet developer tomi has raised $40 million from venture capital firms as part of a broader effort to lure content creators to its decentralized World Wide Web alternative. 

The funding round was led by venture firms DWF Labs, Ticker Capital and Piha Equities, as well as Japanese crypto investor Hirokado Kohji, tomi announced on March 21. The funding will be used by tomi to attract publishers and further develop its network, which is described as a “surveillance-free alternative” to the internet.

The tomi project launched in 2022 as a decentralized cloud computing network. The project is led by an anonymous group of crypto industry veterans who set out to create a version of the internet governed by a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO. The tomiDAO is tasked with network governance, including voting on code alteration proposals and reaching consensus on managing content that violates community guidelines.